How durable/reliable are slideouts?
As I look around at various RV's to eventually figure out what I'd like to buy, one of the designs I really like has a rear-facing slideout. With it in, the bed is a sofa, and if you slide it out the ...
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2gypsies,
Nope, you are not lucky, you have the normal experience of most decently built RV's with slideouts.
Our 1991 Carriage 36' Chaise model bought new that a tree fall on it in November 2006 and totaled it still had the original slideout seals and had never leaked air or water and had NO rubber rot at all and the 2 slides were out more than 90% of each year and the seals exposed directly to the elements. We bought the totalled RV chassis back from the insurance co for peanuts (what it would have cost them to have it hauled to a junkyard) and then sold it for the same price to a personal friend of ours who repairs RV's for a living for the last 31 years and he rebuilt it (the front area over the bed where the tree hit) and the 5th wheel still has the same seals in it today. The slides are in the main coach area.
It's now their personal RV getaway and it's parked on property they own next to (about 50') some resort properties we own in Northern Michigan in an RV resort and see it so many times each year and it looks like it's new as they are quality people and care.
Nope, you are not lucky, you have the normal experience of most decently built RV's with slideouts.
Our 1991 Carriage 36' Chaise model bought new that a tree fall on it in November 2006 and totaled it still had the original slideout seals and had never leaked air or water and had NO rubber rot at all and the 2 slides were out more than 90% of each year and the seals exposed directly to the elements. We bought the totalled RV chassis back from the insurance co for peanuts (what it would have cost them to have it hauled to a junkyard) and then sold it for the same price to a personal friend of ours who repairs RV's for a living for the last 31 years and he rebuilt it (the front area over the bed where the tree hit) and the 5th wheel still has the same seals in it today. The slides are in the main coach area.
It's now their personal RV getaway and it's parked on property they own next to (about 50') some resort properties we own in Northern Michigan in an RV resort and see it so many times each year and it looks like it's new as they are quality people and care.
